Your business is growing steadily, and now you feel ready to take on the local search market. You know that the best way to attract targeted customers is through consistent presence on organic search results and, better yet, local search results. With over 40% of all searches being location-specific, your business will get a substantial advantage if it can take its organic presence to the next level: Google My Business. GMB should be a significant portion of your digital marketing strategy for your electrician business.
Google My Business is a perfect platform designed by Google to help business owners focus and strengthen their local presence. The truth is, there are many businesses that think they can simply set up a GMB or Local listing and then come back in few days to see how it’s performing. The problem with this strategy is that without proper optimization, you’re not likely to rank anywhere on local SERPs. So, what’s the best way to tweak your GMB or Local listing? Enlisted are six essential Google My Business optimizations:
6 Essential Google My Business Optimizations Tips to Get Your Local Listing More Exposure
Whether you are a solo electrician or a locally established business, having a well-optimized Google My Business listing can improve your website’s rankings and improve visibility. With GMB, you can make your company look more professional, trust-worthy, and credible; this will also help you generate new leads and strengthens your relationships with your existing customers.
1. Be Precise About Your Contact Information
It’s simple. A Google My Business listing gives you an opportunity to directly connect with your potential customers across the country. Your GMB profile gives you an opportunity to tell your customers how to reach you directly. For this reason, you need to make sure that your business is easily accessible to your customers. When you optimize your Google My Business listing, you can not only increase your business’s leads but also give your customers a convenient way to get in touch with you.
The most effective contact information for your business is a physical address and a phone number. Ideally, your physical address should be your primary business location, and the address should include your street number, full street name, city, state, and preferably zip code.
If you run an electrical contractor business, you can create a custom URL for your GMB listing. For example, your business can have JohnSmithElectrician.com, and your GMB profile can be linked to it. This will help you increase your clicks and generate leads.
2. Be Detailed with Business Description
Once you’ve decided what your business does, you can use the description field in Google My Business to tell customers more about your specific services. You can use this field to provide all the essential details about your business, such as how big you are, how long you have been in the industry, and what makes you stand out from other electrical contractors. Good use of keywords can also help you to rank for more relevant searches.
3. Include Up-to-Date and Quality Images of Your Business
People tend to trust businesses that have attractive Google My Business listings. When you optimize your GMB listing, make sure you have three to six high-quality photos of your business. You can add images in the daytime, evening time, at night time, and even indoor images. The most important thing here is to have high-quality, professional, and, if possible, pictures detailing the much work you or your business do.
4. Choose Proper Category
Choosing a good category is the key to your GMB optimization. Don’t just choose a category that your business falls under. Also, keep in mind that the category you choose should be common to your industry. With a good category, you will immediately build more trust from your potential customers because they will be aware of how your company specializes. If you don’t know what your business category is, try searching it in Google and check how Google categorizes it.
For example, if you or your company specializes in installing electric car chargers, Google may have categorized you under ‘Automotive > Electric Vehicle.’ If your business specializes in solar panels (install and maintenance), Google may have categorized you under ‘Home > Building & Construction > Contractors’.
5. Optimize Your Reviews and Ratings
Try thinking from the customers’ perspective. When they visit your Google My Business listing, they’ll want to see how you stand out from the crowd and how your past customers rate your services. For this reason, you should ensure that you have good reviews and positive ratings. If you don’t have enough reviews or ratings, try inviting more customers to leave a review. Explain to them what exactly you’ll do if they give you a rating on Google My Business. In addition, you can also use some visual elements such as a badge or footer reviews to let your customers know about your ratings.
6. Choose Applicable Attributes
One of the cornerstones of GMB is its ability to show local search results to users. To support this functionality, Google My Business requires all business owners to enter specific details about their business. Google tries to understand your business and help its users to find you. However, this means that you may have to fill out several attributes.
Don’t worry; if you don’t have enough time to fill out all these, choose only three to four attributes and focus on those. As a locally established electrician, you can set up attributes like 24X7 service, same-day service, domestic and commercial service, holiday service, weekend service, free estimate, and several others.
Final Thoughts
A Google My Business listing goes a long way in boosting your local search rankings and generating new leads for your electrical business. If you are looking to grow your business, make sure you have a well-optimized GMB profile. In addition to these tips, make sure that you have your business location and address verified by Google. By doing so, your business will become more trustworthy to your customers, and Google will show your business to millions of potential customers searching for your industry in the area. If you don’t get time to complete the process yourself, consider hiring a professional (probably a Search Marketing Specialist) to complete the optimization process for you. A professional can also continue to manage your GMB listing in the future.